


The Times That Bind

by The_Twisted_Light



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Food, Kind Of "Screw This I'm Outta Here" But Not Really, Not Really Fandom Blind, Platonic Cuddling, Romance, Smell And Taste, What is this feeling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-05
Updated: 2019-09-05
Packaged: 2020-10-10 14:54:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20529866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Twisted_Light/pseuds/The_Twisted_Light
Summary: A healthy breakfast is a keystone of a healthy worldview.





	The Times That Bind

**Author's Note:**

> This story assumes you have watched the show up to and including Season 3 and does not really skirt around spoilers. If you haven't watched full show, well. What are you waiting for? Get on it ! It's a great one!
> 
> Also brief mentions of IV drips , nothing graphic, no mention of needles too, warning just in case.

The Child.

  
  
Emily the Robot was not doing too hot on this otherwise average day. The Creator was busy in the Broken One’s lair yet again and paid no mind to Emily’s attempts to get attention. Emily was used to it at this point, communication was important for meat people and unfortunately, the Creator and the Broken were still meat people. Her master seemed to desire to unbreak the feeble one however, and as a result of her efforts he came close to what Emily deemed an acceptable amount of metal in his body. Not as direct as she would like, but the shell that the Master had made for him had integrated with his feeble body quite well.

Emily had witnessed the pair work on more and more projects, mainly things that Emily knew to be the parts of herself, parts of what they called “The First One’s tech”. Usually they made robots or weapons, not as complex as Emily was, of course, but more to be mass-produced, replaceable. This time though her Master’s fiddling was far less interesting. Something with explosions, hissing tubes and squishy, bulbous lumps. Emily was getting low on power and bored to boot, so she went to standby mode as The Creator looked worried at yet another explosion of glass and liquid.

  
The Princess.

  
Entrapta’s day was going well. With her latest moves into First One’s tech and the salvaged records from the latest expeditions she could surely further her plans to make Hordak a bit less grumpy than he was. She already made some strides on that regard with a resounding initial success of her exoskeleton. A trifling victory, but a victory nonetheless for a scientist.  
Today the spicy aroma of ash and herbs filled the air, the blast wave spreading the failed batch of her project all around the Sanctum. The explosions were a natural development for Entrapta, of course, even for cooking. Entrapta’s current project was to make Hordak’s diet a bit more varied so to speak, if one could even call it a diet. Normally he used an intravenous drip at first until she made him a mug that heated the goop to his current body temperature. And even then he dipped the mug right into the glass tanks in his Sanctum and chugged until he passed out.

In Entrapta's mind, no matter how you liked your food, drinking tank goop was just sad and inconvenient. She tried the acrid-smelling substance herself, and while she knew hers and Hordak’s sense of taste were probably very different, there was an undeniable stagnation to the bitter liquid. Not to mention how he looked like death warmed over every time he finished consuming it. The test samples, grown from the fluid, Hordak’s own samples and some records of First One’s cuisine could unlock a key for a new way for him to feed. Entrapta put her mask back on and one again started mixing the nutritional solution for the growth cultures.

  
\- Day 21 of the food experiment. This morning’s batch had proven potent, but unfortunately a bit too explosive for consumption. Gladly, I know just the thing to fix it, tomorrow has to be a success!

  
  
The Lost.

Hordak awoke to a mild case of unfathomable amounts of pain as per usual. Another day, another percentage of his body lost to the corruption of Etheria. With a sigh the supreme commander of The (local) Horde removed his nighttime IV drips and went to get into his exoskeleton when something silky covered his entire face. It didn’t obstruct his mouth and nose however. It was abrupt. It was strange. 

It was nice. The matter smelled of burnt plastic and metal, annoying tiny foods and of something half-forgotten. For a moment, surprising himself, Hordak wanted to just lie down and breathe it deep, just like that. He quickly suppressed a moment of weakness to ponder on the situation. There could be only one person that would ever dare disturb him in such a way, and he had to act accordingly no matter what sudden whims he felt.  
  
\- What is the meaning of this, Entrapta? Unless you have a reason for this disturbance, and I highly doubt that you do, I suggest you stop interrupting my morning. If there is something that needs to be done in the Sanctum you could have waited for me there, - Hordak himself noticed that his voice lacked steel at the present time, his composure disrupted by the situation.  
  
\- Now now, that would be telling! If you could see that would ruin the surprise! Follow me! - with last exclamation Hordak heard her hair tug as she began to walk who knows where. He had to respond somehow.

  
\- How would I follow you?! I can’t see, Entrapta! Unless you have something that lets me see through your hair, or better yet, _if you would only stop blocking my eyes_, I can’t follow you even if I wanted! - Hordak yelled at her, frustrated both at her whims and at his own inability to suppress his face growing hotter. He was almost glad that it was covered by her annoying, tangly, silky, fragrant hair…  
  
\- Hmmmmmmm… That is a problem now, isn’t it? Emily, help me! - Hordak heard Entrapta loudly clap, followed by a series of whirs of servomotors and clangs of robotic feet.  
  
Hordak felt her hair shift and his frame lifted in the air by both pink tendrils and by what felt like the claws of her ever imperfect robot, Emily. He felt himself being cradled in the bed of hair, supported by her delicate, but firm hands. Hordak’s face grew so hot he for a second thought her hair would ignite and just as he opened his mouth to command her to stop, he felt her finger touch his lips. He stopped reflexively, unsure how else to react.

  
\- Now I know you’re the big commander person, Hordak, but let me take the lead this time. I promise, it’ll be worth it. Trust me, _please_, - Entrapta's voice cracked a little at that "please". That was most unusual for her.  
  
**_“Trust me”_**  
  
Lord Commander Hordak often put his trust in his subordinates. They craved it, they were proud to get it, and they suffered the fall if the trust proved to be misplaced. But this time…  
It was different. Entrapta was no subordinate of Hordak’s, that much he knew. What precisely she was however… He was not sure, and suspected she didn't want to define it either.  
Entrapta didn’t ask Hordak for much aside from resources for her experiments. For anything in fact. She didn’t ask for his approval, nor did she ask for him to call her a friend in return when Entrapta said she liked being his friend _too_. It just… happened.  
  
Guess this time he could let it happen this time too. It’s not like he had anything to lose, right?  
  
\- I… I trust you, Entrapta. Lead the way.  
And with that Lord Commander Hordak relaxed and let himself be cradled away to whatever his princess had concocted for him.  
  
_A FEW MOMENTS LATER_  
  
  
\- TA-DAAAA! Behold, salvation for your salivation!  
  
Hordak felt his blindfold slide away to see that they were, in fact, in his Sanctum. He put his hand to his face part in frustration and partly to hide his face burning with… something. Shame? Fear? Not that, but he didn’t know what it was too. He took a look at a tray covered by a semi-spherical piece of metal with a protruding piece of wire on top of it. Entrapta used similar ones for her miniature foodstuffs, but this one took the entire table it sat upon.  
  
\- What it it, Entrapta?  
  
\- Open up and see! - Entrapta seemed positively jubilant and proud of herself, even more than when he witnessed her greatest experiments borne fruit. She looked at the tray and back to him. He could almost see her vibrate with anticipation, so much her happiness was visible.  
Hordak felt compelled to not keep her waiting and thus, lifted the cover up. And found himself looking at a painfully familiar picture. A dish arranged in a way that he almost remembered, but haven’t seen in decades. A plate full of meat and vegetables unlike any he had seen before.. On Etheria.

  
The corrupted air of this planet prevented him from smelling things in their entirety from his height above the plate, so he couldn’t prepare his mind by sniffing it. But however the doubts the dish still looked familiar, a resemblance Entrapta herself couldn’t have faked.

  
She asked him to trust her. It had to be good. It looked good to be sure.

\- I know you’re not a fan of my tiny foods, so I made these ones a bit larger than usual. If you change your mind, there’s always a knife! - and indeed, there was a fork and a knife on the tray as well. Miniature ones. Her personal ones.  
  
He sighed, took the utensils and chopped off a small piece. Took a deep sniff with what remained of his nostrils. He almost dropped it as he felt his mouth watering, and his stomach rumbling, demanding he shove that entire plate down his throat. A feeling he had forgotten he knew what to do with, subsiding on synthesized nutrient solution, the one he used to sustain his failed brethren in their tanks.  
  
But this… As Hordak finally bit a piece from the chunk and swallowed, his entire being was shaken. He bit once more, this time savoring the rich taste and powerful smell. Then another piece. And another.

  
This… this tasted just his own planet. Smelled like it too. Just like the army cafeteria used to supply. His heart started bleeding with nostalgia, memories of simpler times, of his spartan, but vigorous youth. A taste of home, a glimpse back he didn’t know he craved. And as it turned out he didn’t crave just that, as he found himself wolfing down the entire plate without even noticing, and for the first time in decades his body did not reject the food he shoved inside. If anything, his stomach was calm for once.  
Entrapta made the impossible reality for him yet again. With the exoskeleton, he regained his body. But with this Hordak felt himself gaining something far less tangible… but orders of magnitude beyond more important.  
He felt… That things mattered to him once again beyond his mission. A feeling of SOMEONE mattering to him, of everlasting gratitude for everything she did for him.  
She said she liked being his friend too.

  
And his entire reason for existence currently revolved around destroying her world. The thought of it happening, sometimes the only thing that got him up in the mornings, now turned his mouth to ash. His mind started to conjure pictures of Prime's triumphant appearance, of Princesses captured or dead...

Of Entrapta captured or dead.

\- What's wrong? You don't like it? I suspected I messed up somewhere, let me try again... - Entrapta must have caught his face turning grim at his latest though and started to hurriedly rummage through her notes and lab tools.

\- No, not at all! It's... It's delightful, Entrapta. I haven't had something of this magnitude made for me... In years - Hordak caught himself not wanting to distress her. Just like that time when he tried to dissuade her from her notion of being a failure.

-Is there something wrong still? I need data! How does it taste for you? For me it's slightly smells of rubber, but surprisingly lemony, not sure if you have context for these though... - her speech turned to her usual lab droning, which he drowned out by his contemplations.

He turned to his unborn brothers/bodies. This had been a long time brewing. A long time coming. He always postponed his thoughts on the matter, always expecting their progress to fail, but with every step Entrapta showed that the portal would work and that Prime would arrive. If he let it happen.  
_"What do I do now? What should I do with her? What should I do with Prime once he arrives? Do I plead for her freedom? No, he won't listen. I guess... That leaves me with one choice."  
_ He now realized. This decision had been a long time coming, and whether he knew it consciously or not, the answer was sealed the moment Hordak saw her smile.

\- Entrapta! - he called. No response, and no princess in sight. - ENTRAPTA!!!

\- Yes? I heard you the first time, but I can't teleport myself at once, you forbade that experiment, - she poked her head from a nearby vent, her voice muffled by her mask.

\- Yes, that one was dangerous. R-regardless - Hordak felt his voice slip, felt himself stutter, flustered, afraid of what was to come. - **Ahem.** Regardless, I know it may sound abrupt, but we must cease working on the portal at once. I... uh ... remembered something. The portal is... too dangerous. We would be... utter fools to continue.

Hordak saw Entrapta lift her mask to stare at him in disbelief at first, her eyes wide, her jaw slacked. Then, as with magic, the expression shifted into the brightest, most beautiful smile he ever seen on her wondeful face.

\- Uh-huh. - With that The Princess of Dryl pulled the Supreme Commander of The Horde into what could be unmistakably describe as a hug. Then she spoke , her voice strung with worry. - But what about your home? Your brother Prime?

\- I... My... home is here. On Etheria. And my brother... can have the rest of the galaxy for himself. I've got the better side of the deal . - Hordak felt his face flush with colour yet again, but this time, he did not resist it nor hide it.

\- And what would that be? - He felt Entrapta pull closer to him, wrapping him in her hair.

\- That would be you, Entrapta._ I like being your friend, too..._ Too much to let anything happen to you.

**Author's Note:**

> This was going to be purely a prompt at first.  
But it grew out of control and I barely slid past the final deadline  
Send help for person stuck in a pairing adoration for the first time in his life. Feel free to show errors so I could ninja edit them.  
The first of the She-Ra things I did, pretty sure not the last.  
Thanks for everyone at Fanfiction Discord for their support.  
Couldn't have done it without y'all.


End file.
